custodians of knowledge

27:5.1The super­aphic cus­to­di­ans of knowl­edge are the higher “liv­ing epis­tles” known and read by all who dwell on Par­a­dise. They are the di­vine rec­ords of truth, the liv­ing books of real knowl­edge. You have heard about rec­ords in the “book of life.” The cus­to­di­ans of knowl­edge are just such liv­ing books, rec­ords of per­fec­tion im­printed upon the eter­nal tablets of di­vine life and su­preme surety. They are in re­al­ity liv­ing, au­to­matic li­braries. The facts of the uni­verses are in­her­ent in these pri­mary super­na­phim, ac­tu­ally re­corded in these an­gels; and it is also in­her­ently im­pos­si­ble for an un­truth to gain lodg­ment in the minds of these per­fect and re­plete repos­i­to­ries of the truth of eter­nity and the in­tel­li­gence of time.

27:5.2These cus­to­di­ans con­duct in­for­mal courses of in­struc­tion for the res­i­dents of the eter­nal Isle, but their chief func­tion is that of ref­er­ence and ver­i­fi­ca­tion. Any so­journer on Par­a­dise may at will have by his side the liv­ing re­pos­i­tory of the par­tic­u­lar fact or truth he may wish to know. At the north­ern ex­trem­ity of the Isle there are avail­able the liv­ing find­ers of knowl­edge, who will des­ig­nate the di­rec­tor of the group hold­ing the in­for­ma­tion sought, and forth­with will ap­pear the bril­liant be­ings who are the very thing you wish to know. No longer must you seek en­light­en­ment from en­grossed pages; you now com­mune with liv­ing in­tel­li­gence face to face. Su­preme knowl­edge you thus ob­tain from the liv­ing be­ings who are its fi­nal cus­to­di­ans.

27:5.3When you lo­cate that super­na­phim who is ex­actly what you de­sire to ver­ify, you will find avail­able all the known facts of all uni­verses, for these cus­to­di­ans of knowl­edge are the fi­nal and liv­ing sum­maries of the vast net­work of the record­ing an­gels, rang­ing from the ser­a­phim and se­con­a­phim of the lo­cal and super­uni­verses to the chief re­cord­ers of the ter­tiary super­na­phim in Ha­vona. And this liv­ing ac­cu­mu­la­tion of knowl­edge is dis­tinct from the for­mal rec­ords of Par­a­dise, the cu­mu­la­tive sum­mary of uni­ver­sal his­tory.

27:5.4The wis­dom of truth takes ori­gin in the di­vin­ity of the cen­tral uni­verse, but knowl­edge, ex­pe­ri­en­tial knowl­edge, largely has its be­gin­nings in the do­mains of time and space—there­fore the ne­ces­sity for the main­te­nance of the far-flung super­uni­verse or­ga­ni­za­tions of the record­ing ser­a­phim and super­na­phim spon­sored by the Ce­les­tial Re­cord­ers.

27:5.5These pri­mary super­na­phim who are in­her­ently in pos­ses­sion of uni­verse knowl­edge are also re­spon­si­ble for its or­ga­ni­za­tion and clas­si­fi­ca­tion. In con­sti­tut­ing them­selves the liv­ing ref­er­ence li­brary of the uni­verse of uni­verses, they have clas­si­fied knowl­edge into seven grand or­ders, each hav­ing about one mil­lion sub­di­vi­sions. The fa­cil­ity with which the res­i­dents of Par­a­dise can con­sult this vast store of knowl­edge is solely due to the vol­un­tary and wise ef­forts of the cus­to­di­ans of knowl­edge. The cus­to­di­ans are also the ex­alted teach­ers of the cen­tral uni­verse, freely giv­ing out their liv­ing trea­sures to all be­ings on any of the Ha­vona cir­cuits, and they are ex­ten­sively, though in­di­rectly, uti­lized by the courts of the An­cients of Days. But this liv­ing li­brary, which is avail­able to the cen­tral and super­uni­verses, is not ac­ces­si­ble to the lo­cal cre­ations. Only by in­di­rec­tion and re­flec­tively are the ben­e­fits of Par­a­dise knowl­edge se­cured in the lo­cal uni­verses.

25:5.1From among the ter­tiary super­na­phim in Ha­vona, cer­tain of the se­nior chief re­cord­ers are cho­sen as Cus­to­di­ans of Rec­ords, as keep­ers of the for­mal ar­chives of the Isle of Light, those ar­chives which stand in con­trast to the liv­ing rec­ords of reg­istry in the minds of the cus­to­di­ans of knowl­edge, some­times des­ig­nated the “liv­ing li­brary of Par­a­dise.”

27:0.63. Cus­to­di­ans of Knowl­edge.

28:5.71. The Voice of Wis­dom. Cer­tain of these se­con­a­phim are in per­pet­ual li­ai­son with the liv­ing li­braries of Par­a­dise, the cus­to­di­ans of knowl­edge be­long­ing to the pri­mary super­na­phim. In spe­cial­ized re­flec­tive ser­vice the Voices of Wis­dom are liv­ing, cur­rent, re­plete, and thor­oughly re­li­able con­cen­tra­tions and fo­cal­iza­tions of the co-or­di­nated wis­dom of the uni­verse of uni­verses. To the well-nigh in­fi­nite vol­ume of in­for­ma­tion cir­cu­lat­ing on the mas­ter cir­cuits of the super­uni­verses, these su­perb be­ings are so re­flec­tive and se­lec­tive, so sen­si­tive, as to be able to seg­re­gate and re­ceive the essence of wis­dom and unerringly to trans­mit these jew­els of men­ta­tion to their su­pe­ri­ors, the Per­fec­tors of Wis­dom. And they so func­tion that the Per­fec­tors of Wis­dom not only hear the ac­tual and orig­i­nal ex­pres­sions of this wis­dom but also re­flec­tively see the very be­ings, of high or lowly ori­gin, who gave voice to it.